Almost as soon as the IceWing left, Mallow and Jackal turned to Caldera. The small SkyWing seemed to be reliving some very unpleasant moments.
"I'm alright." She said quietly.
"Are you sure?" Mallow asked, bending down a little so she could look directly at Caldera. "It's okay if you're not; I'm not following some IceWing's orders. I'm a MudWing, for moons sake! We protect are sibs, and in my case, our friends."
Caldera smiled a little. "Thanks," she murmured. "But two of the three of us can't fly, so we won't be able to get far." She looked over to Jackal, and he remembered that he hadn't been extremely cautious.
"Whatever you say, I have a perfectly valid reason for." Jackal said quickly. Caldera had been paying attention; she seemed like the type of dragon who'd learn things easily. "And whatever that reason is, I have a perfectly valid reason not to say it in front of a random IceWing who may or may not be standing just out of eyesight."
"Why—" Caldera began, pausing before reconsidering her words. "How did you nod at Mallow? If you can't see her and thus can't tell she was asking silent permission?"
And of course she asked the question Jackal had been avoiding for the past two years. Mallow's attention was on him now as well, and he shrunk back a little. "C-can I tell you when you bring me back home?" Jackal asked, hoping to postpone the answer so he could figure out how to best explain.
"No," Caldera replied. "Because I've also noticed that you don't move as confidently without your…whatever you call that piece of fabric over your eyes." She gestured to his blindfold.
"I call it a blindfold," he explained.
Caldera nodded in acknowledgment, but apparently she wasn't done with her kind-sounding accusations. "I also think it has something to do with why you can't sleep, why you're having nightmares. It's also the reason why you're scared of yourself." She sighed. "If you don't want to completely explain now, that's fine. But I just want to understand the situation…because maybe then I could help more. At least prove or disprove my thoughts, and then we can wait until you're back home to finish the rest."
Jackal tried to find a way to explain when, thankfully, Calcite came back so he had a valid reason not to. The trio turned to the IceWing, but not before Caldera could sigh and give Jackal a "I expect an answer eventually" look—he wasn't sure how he felt about her knowing he could see it.
"Alright, I finally know what to do with you three." Calcite said, walking to the center of the cave. She waited a few moments, as if for a response, then flicked her tail and frowned. "I know I don't seem trusting—war and alliances and all that nonsense—but I want to get to know you." She pointed at Mallow. "You. How good are you in a fight?"
"I could probably kill you if I wanted to." Mallow replied casually. Jackal noticed that Caldera seemed to flinch at how easily the MudWing hybrid mentioned it. He couldn't say he was used to hearing Mallow say stuff like that either.
Calcite looked intrigued albeit a little disappointed. "You don't look like it," she noted.
Mallow flexed her claws, but threw her wings up to hide most of Caldera and Jackal from view. "Do you want to see if it feels like it?"
"I'm not interested in dying today." Calcite replied smoothly. She paused for a moment, seeming to be lost in thoughts. "What about the other two?"
Mallow's grunt was the only response she received.
Calcite looked over them. "I have a little task for you." She said, flicking her tail. It seemed like her voice was back to an almost forced version of kindness, too sweet to be true. It also sounded like she had the words rehearsed—there didn't seem to be much emotion behind them. "Once you fulfill it, I'll let you go. If you refuse, I have every right to kill you—three trespassers and with Burn, I assume, so I have more than one reason to."
"What do you want us to do?" Mallow asked. She lowered her wings again, instead making them pull Jackal and Caldera a bit closer to her.
"I have…someplace I want to see. And I want you to take me there."
"Where?"
"Oh, it's not far. I just want to get through the Mud Kingdom."